When my family went grocery shopping as a kid, we went every couple weeks and bought a lot of stuff. Bagged it up, put it in the car, and drove it home. How do people grocery shop without a vehicle, though? Do you shop more frequently and buy less at a time? Do you have one of those rolling cart thingies? Do you walk to the store and back or do you take public transportation?
I’m mostly wondering at the logistics of this for a large inner-city family. Would you take the whole family and have everyone carry a few bags home?
I didn’t have a large family, but I lived in Albany proper for a while without a car. We had a rolling cart, which we took on the bus. Most of the time the driver did not mind us wheeling it on there and holding it by the handicapped area; if handicapped people came on I always moved it of course. We tried to go at non-busy times and back then this was a much less bus-friendly city so it was rarely full.
In my present house, and in the last and next one that I lived/will live in*, the nearest supermarket is in walking distance, so it’s possible just to carry groceries home.
In an apartment complex I used to live in people would just take the grocery basket with them and walk home. Someone from each of the nearby grocery stores would drive by with a pickup truck and bring the carts back every few days.
I see poor families pushing carts full of groceries blocks away from the nearest grocery store. Some apartment complexes have half a dozen grocery carts in the common area.
Part of the issue with most inner-city areas is a lack of good grocery stores with fresh produce, so they end up just buying what they need at the corner store, which of course is mostly processed junk food. Here’s an article about these “food deserts” here in Chicago.
Most people I know that live in the city, with a family, also own a car. There are also a lot of great delivery services (Peapod, mentioned above) and short-time car rental services (like Zip Car) that help. Also, a lot of people I know in the city have little roller carts like this oneto haul their groceries home from the store. Can’t fill it with much, but it’s more than you could carry.
The grocery store is within walking distance of my house, and is exactly halfway between the train station and my house, so most of the time I stop on the way home a couple of nights a week and get what I need for the next few days. When I have to stock up, or I know there’s going to be heavy groceries, I walk there and take a taxi home.
I very rarely use peapod. The delivery fee is comparable to a taxi ride, and I find that they aren’t quite as invested in the quality of my produce as I am.
The main shopping centre for this suburb is 15 minutes walk away. A taxi ride from the shops back to home, even at off-peak times when the tariff is higher, costs at most about $8 depending on traffic.
So I do the shopping once a fortnight and get a taxi home with it. For $10 me and the food are dropped right on the doorstep.
Failing that, both major supermarket chains over here now offer delivery service. Again, about $10, depending on the time period that you want it delivered in. Sometimes they have specials with half-price delivery, or free delivery for orders over a certain amount.
Use a car myself but friends without a car talk to the supermarket and get a taxi back. In the UK the alternative is online shopping and home delivery - all the supermarkets offer a home delivery service for a few pounds.
Our van died a few months ago so I’ve been walking it with a cart. We only have the one store within my walking range and I needed two or three days to get everything.
I just bought a trailer for the handcycle and a week’s worth just fits.
When I live near enough to a grocery store to walk every day, I plan my meals each day or every few days, then buy fresh ingredients. I’d carry the groceries home in a reusable bag. I’ve also biked and uses buses to go on trips to buy fresh food. I much prefer this way over going on a weekly market trip; however, when I did primarily carry my food home with a car, I’d rely on a friend with a car to take me to a warehouse type place to stock up on canned goods and other huge, bulky items.
There’s a grocery store on the corner of my block; but I don’t shop much there. Often I would ride my bike about 15 minutes away to shop where I prefer to. Personally I only eat fresh food, no dry/bulk items (although I do freeze some things), so it makes more sense for me to shop frequently rather than making a massive trip once or twice a month.
I just got a job working at my favorite grocery store, where I get a 20% discount on everything, so now I do my shopping at the end of my shift and carry it home on foot (as my bike has a blown tire I haven’t fixed yet). I’m in good shape and a 2-mile walk carrying 20 lbs of groceries is not a problem, although biking saves a lot of time and I really need to get mine working again.
My boyfriend and I used to shop together sometimes in his car - we don’t live together, but we often share food and cook together. I don’t think that will happen much any more because I can just bring everything home from work, and I’m there at least 4 days per week. A lot of people without cars have friends and loved ones with cars who don’t mind carpooling for major shopping trips.
I don’t know any big families who live carless in my city (Philadelphia) but I know a lot of people who live with room mates and will shop for the household, or who have 1-3 kids (usually single parents). If there’s no grocery store within reasonable walking distance they take the bus, or bike over, usually on their way home from work. More frequent trips, smaller loads.
I used to do this when I lived in urban Seattle without a car. I only lived five or six blocks from the grocery store, so I’d often just get off the bus a stop early, buy whatever I could comfortably carry, and schlep it home. You make it part of your routine.
My parents did this for about seven years. There was a small supermarket down the street, and they tended to stop there every two or three days to buy groceries. They also bought bread at the bakery every day. They just never bought much at any given time. There was also less incentive to buy a lot since the store wasn’t very far.
The location where they lived was great. There was a pharmacy around the corner from their condo, there was a a newstand almost in front of the building entrance, a supermarket down the street, and their dentist was two blocks away. In their situation, they tended to go out for dinner fairly often since everything was so close.
Walk, even with heavy stuff. Or, how do you call it, those rolling things in a nice gingham print. When I had to take bus to get to good (suburban) supermarket, I used to take one or two huge duffel bags and struggle to my place downtown. Then I said fuck it and bought a car. In big cities, it was always walking – not just me, but pretty much everyone.
Otherwise, cab. I always budget a certain amount of money per month for taking cabs, having sold my last car – not “done” so much out here West, but lots of people did it out East in poor neighborhoods. Occasionally (once every few months), I grab a ride with my sister and nephew to a suburban supermarket and stock up on dried and canned and dry goods, and reciprocate by making sure I keep an eye on the little guy and helping her do her shopping, which can be trying for a mother with a young child. I’m just a bachelor, but I like to eat, and I’d be surprised if people shopping for households >= 1 did much different w/o a car.
There’s a grocery store half a mile away from me, and I walk there once or twice a week. I bring two reusable shopping bags and a larger tote bag, so I can carry a lot more stuff than with regular plastic bags. I don’t have anyone else to shop for, which makes it a lot easier.
